Observation: Psalm 24 is a song for entry into worship in the Jerusalem Temple. My favorite verse is the first one, "The earth is the Lord's, and all that is in it." There's no place we can go that isn't made and owned by God. The psalm then asks the question about who is worthy to enter God's temple, and responds that it's those who have "clean hands and pure hearts." Finally, the psalm welcomes God, the King of Glory, into the holy space. You can kind of picture a procession of people, starting out in the outer country, entering the city, then the temple, and finally recognizing that God is coming to join them there.
Application: Today is All Saints Sunday. The ancient Christian calendar was so full of saint days and commemorations that unless you wanted to have a holiday every single day you had to have one catch-all celebration to honor them all, even the ones history missed. But today, this commemoration has come to mark not just of extraordinary Christians who we deem to have "clean hands and pure hearts," but every baptized believer. It's a reminder that we're all in this together.
One big myth about "saints" is that this term only refers to exceptionally virtuous people--not like the rest of us bums. Some Christians believe that, but not all of us. In Romans, we read that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Nobody is so virtuous as to have "clean hands and a pure heart" all by themselves. There may be a few shining examples of humankind who sin a little less. But it's silly to compare ourselves to them. The only person with really "clean hands and a pure heart" is Jesus, and compared to him, nobody is close. It's like one ant feeling proud because she's on top of a blade of grass, and therefore closer to the moon than other ants. By ourselves, nobody is clean. Nobody is a saint.
That's why we have to borrow Christ's righteousness at our baptism. It's as if on the very last day of school, he gave us his report card and took ours. That's what makes us saints.
Who is worthy to enter God's heavenly temple? Shoot, who is even worthy to occupy this space on God's earth, breathing God's air, eating God's food? The King of Glory. End of list. Good thing he has invited us as guests.
Have a blessed All Saints Day, fellow sinners.
Have a blessed All Saints Day, fellow saints.
Prayer: God, be with all who are struggling today, especially those who are struggling because of their faith in you. Remind them over and over that nothing done in your name is done in vain. Amen.
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